Prototype 2: Post Game
by 100million pennies
Summary: The world thought that he was gone. James Heller thought that he had won. How foolish. Takes place immediately after the last cut scene of Prototype 2, and is largely just my thoughts on what should have happened, take it how you will.


**Prototype 2: Post Game**

The world thought that Alex Mercer was dead and gone; James Heller thought that he had won.

How foolish.

Heller, or at least Dana, should have known better; after all Mercer had, rather deliberately, told his little sister before locking her and Heller's daughter, Amaya, in that bank vault that he and Heller were beyond things like life and death. But, apparently, neither really listened to that subtle warning, because now Mercer stands in the extra physical plane that represents the Web of Intrigue.

Mercer smirked, _All according to plan. _Ever since his first attempt to kill and consume Heller failed, Mercer knew that this is what it would most likely come to in the end. Heller's DNA was far too resilient to allow him to be consumed by normal means, and so Mercer proceeded to steadily feed his Evolved to Heller. In so doing he was making Heller stronger and stronger, to the point that when Heller eventually came to confront Mercer personally, the former soldier would be powerful enough to not doubt his victory and so would not notice that Mercer's presence in the Web of Intrigue was far more powerful than it should have been, even for a recently consumed Prototype.

Mercer needed this so that Heller would let his guard down and allow Mercer to move freely within the Web. This was necessary for Mercer to successfully complete what Greene had attempted to do to him after he had escaped Manhattan. A little known fact is that a Runner class Infected of any variety has the ability to, should a powerful enough force of will be applied, overwhelm the mind of the Runner which had consumed her and assert control over their now shared body. Fortunately for Mercer, when Greene attempted to do this to him, she was unable to muster enough mental force to take over their body and so Mercer then dove into the Web, confronted what was left of Greene's mind, and then used his own to subjugate and lock her away in a cage reminiscent of the one in which he had first found her.

So now Alex Mercer stood atop a grayed out recreation of the helipad, where he had his finally confrontation with Heller, in a similarly grayed out version New York Zero. Mercer closed his eyes and reached out through the Web to find his Evolved that Heller had consumed, for when Mercer fed his Evolved to Heller it was for more than to present the former soldier with the power to believably challenge him; it was also a way to allow Mercer gather extra mental force in the form of the minds of the Evolved.

After a few minutes, Mercer was able to locate the Evolved he was searching for: Dr. Anton Koenig.

Koenig was the perfect first target; he was likely still fiercely loyal to Mercer, and so he would be easy to sucker into letting Mercer close enough to absorb his mind, and he was also the very first Evolved that Heller had ever consumed, making it extraordinarily unlikely that Heller would notice when Koenig's voice disappears from the chorus that is now the former soldier's mind.

With this in mind and wearing a grin, which seemed far too shark-like to fit properly on a normal human face, Mercer set off for Koenig's current residence: the Web's representation of the Yellow Zone.

**Web of Intrigue – Yellow Zone – 1 Hour later**

Dr. Anton Koenig stood atop a rather tall building overlooking an apparently deserted Yellow Zone as he contemplated the hows and whys of his current situation. He knew that his true physical body no longer existed as such, the memory of Heller's many biomass tendrils violently ripping it apart was still fresh in his mind, and yet here he stood in his seemingly perfectly healthy body with all of his Evolved powers intact, as far as he knew since there was no one else present in this representation of the Yellow Zone for him to test his ability to consume biomass.

His solitary contemplation was interrupted by a loud crash and what sounded like concrete shattering from behind him. He swiftly turned around, forming his blades on his arms, to face who he had assumed was Heller come into this strange world to confront him again for some reason, and Koenig was not going to underestimate that savage again. So imagine his surprise when instead of being greeted with the savage scowling visage of the man who had consumed him, he was met with the rather bemused looking smirk of his master, Dr. Alex J. Mercer.

"D-Dr. Mercer?" Koenig asked, retracting his blades.

"Indeed, doctor," Mercer said, his smirk widening, almost appearing predatory for a moment.

"But, if you're here, then that means that Heller won," because he hadn't felt any kind of shift that might have expected to come with a shift from Heller's Web to Mercer's.

"One would think that, wouldn't one, doctor? But, that is not quite the case. You see, doctor, I had underestimated the resilience of Heller's DNA, and so when I went to consume him for his rebellion, I was unsuccessful and the attempt nearly killed me. Well, that event forced me to revise the end of Heller's evolution; his rebellion really changed nothing else of my plans. I was already having Sabrina Galloway attempt to seduce him while feeding many of the evolved to him as a way to hasten his growth in preparation of making him my right hand, only know it was so that our final confrontation would be believable and would leave me free to move about in the Web with much more of my will intact than any other who Heller had consumed," Mercer said, his smirk growing and becoming more and more predatory as he slowly walked toward Koenig. "And now, I need to gather more will so that I can launch a successful strike against Heller's mind, and you're going to help me, doctor."

At that moment, Mercer thrust forward at blinding speed, his hands already shifted into claws which he stabbed into the representation of Koenig's mind and remaining will, and, just as swiftly, ripped it asunder and absorbed it into himself.

"One down," he said as he began to search out his next victim.

**Twenty years later**

Over the last twenty years Mercer had been hunting and consuming the mental representations of the Evolved who's bodies had been consumed by Heller, with more and more time between each kill, so as to arouse the least suspicion from both his prey and Heller, himself. But Mercer had hit a snag of sorts in the form of one Dr. Lawrence Foster. No matter how hard Mercer looked into Heller's Web, he simply could not find the doctor; which was somewhat worrying as the only Evolved who should be able to hide from him should be his former right hand, Roland. So Mercer was left to assume that Roland had somehow found out what was going on and had already consumed Dr. Foster. He could also assume that Roland had already gotten to Commander Chapin, Elwood Pine, and the other myriad nameless subordinate and Blackwatch Evolved who had also been rather mysteriously absent from the Web.

"Well, I suppose I had better go deal with Roland now, and if Heller still hasn't noticed anything then he shouldn't notice if I have a little fight with Roland," Mercer told himself as he broadcast the his knowledge of Roland's attempted move against him to about where he thought Roland should be in the Web, in an attempt to draw the man out.

It didn't take too long for Mercer to get a response to his message in the form of an image of a location in the Web's representation of NYZ. It also turned out that the location was only about a three minute glide from where Mercer was at the moment, so he rather swiftly arrived to find, unsurprisingly, that Roland was there waiting for him with his blades already out.

Immediately upon landing Mercer attempts to open a light banter with Roland, only for the man to be upon him with blade in mid swing from either side the moment that Mercer opened his mouth to speak. Not terribly surprised by this Mercer had already shifted his hands into his claws and lifted them up to catch Roland's blades before they could decapitate him. Not to be discouraged, Roland immediately unleashed a multitude of spikes from the front of his body, hoping to impale Mercer in as many places and as deeply as possible before reeling him in to be consumed. As luck would have it, Roland did pierce Mercer with each one of his many spikes; but as he was about to reel Mercer in and consume him, Roland heard a low, dark chuckling which steadily grew into uproarious and rather insane laughter. In a panic He tried to reel Mercer in and consume him, if only to silence that damn laughter; but instead of pulling Mercer into himself, he was being pulled into Mercer. Mercer's laughter only increased in volume before he spoke with amusement dripping from his voice, "Did you really think that, that would work, Roland? Have you forgotten who it was that gave you those powers? Did you think that you could do what even Heller was unable to truly do? Did you think that just because you had consumed a few of your fellow Evolved that it would make you my equal in any way? It doesn't matter, you were never meant to be my equal, you were never meant to be even Heller's equal. You and all the rest of the Evolved, simply existed feed the Prototypes like Heller and me, to make us stronger and to facilitate an easier transition into a single body, since you were already infected."

Roland was truly panicking now, thrashing about and screaming as he tried desperately to escape Mercer's hold; but it was for naught, as Mercer had begun to pierce Roland's spikes and blades with his own biomass tendrils, slowly reeling Roland in and consuming him. Once Roland had been completely consumed, after perhaps five minutes of Mercer prolonging the process, Mercer sat down and began a sort meditation to quiet the multitudes within him which had just been added to by Roland. After quieting the voices he remained seated, preparing for the attack on Heller's mind once he was absolutely sure the Heller's mental defenses were lowered enough to even make an attempt at asserting control. And so, he waited.

**About ten years later – Outside world – Unknown battlefield**

James Heller was fighting for his life. Or at least that was what it looked like. As it turned out he was in no real danger, even with the many bullets flying overhead and various explosives detonating nearby. He had learned long ago during the Second Outbreak of Blacklight, when he had become what he was today, that there was very little that could truly damage him, or pose a real threat to his life; but, as he had taken up his old career as a soldier again, using a false name and stolen appearance some twenty odd years ago, he had to keep up appearances with the other men in his squad, meaning no miraculous survival of some rocket, grenade or bullet to the face. Not that acting like a normal soldier was really all that difficult for him, he had been a normal soldier before the Mercer incident, and he had the memories of near countless normal soldiers screaming at him in his head.

As Heller ducked behind some cover to reload his gun and catch the breath that he hadn't needed for about thirty years now, he suddenly doubled over, holding his head in his hands and screaming at the top of his nonexistent lungs. It had felt like one of the Evolved from back in NYZ had just stabbed him in the back of the head and then proceeded to twist the blade several times. Just as suddenly as it appeared the pain vanished, only for it to be replaced by a falling sensation as Heller's vision went dark and the entire outside world disappeared.

**Web of Intrigue – Helipad in the Red Zone where Mercer first appeared **

When Heller could see again, he was rather confused. First was the fact that somehow he seemed to be back in NYZ, even though the battle field he was just fighting on was nowhere near Old New York. Also, the colors seemed to be gone, the whole world seemed to be painted in shades of gray. Things started to make a bit more sense when he heard a mocking voice that he thought he had silenced almost thirty years ago in this very spot.

"Well, well, look who finally decided to pay a visit. You know, Heller, its rather rude to not at least talk a little bit to voices in your head," Mercer said, casually walking up to stand before Heller with his hand in the pockets of his leather jacket.

Heller immediately shifted his arms into their clawed form and shouted at Mercer, "How the fuck are you still alive, where the fuck are we, and how the fuck did we get here?!"

Mercer was clearly unimpressed, not even bothering to remove his hands from his pockets as he said, "Really, Heller? I know that you were never exactly the brightest, but even you should be able to piece together the answers to those questions. Go on, I'll wait."

This only served to further enrage Heller, as he pounced at Mercer, claws first, with a mighty roar. Mercer easily dashed out of the way, hands still in his pockets and staring mockingly at Heller. Heller immediately shifts his right arm into his large blade and takes a swipe at Mercer, hoping to bisect the man at the waist; only to miss again as Mercer casually hops out of the way.

"Come now Heller, it's like you're not even trying. You were some much faster than this when you killed me," Mercer mocked, before instantly getting right in Heller's face and whispering, "Or maybe, I wasn't really trying that day when you killed me."

Heller, panicking for a moment at their proximity and what Mercer was suggesting, fires off a Devastator in the hopes of making Mercer pay for getting so close. But Mercer again shows his superior speed by dashing back away from Heller and dodging all of the high velocity tendrils and biomass shrapnel expelled from Heller's body.

Now was when Heller began to truly panic, as he realized that there was apparently nothing that he could do to hurt Mercer if the man could dodge a zero range, full powered Devastator. His panic was rather short-lived, however, as in the moment after this revelation struck him, Mercer saw that Heller had realized the hopelessness of his current situation, he decided not to drag things out any more than they already had been, and so, in a burst of speed even greater than what he had exhibited a moment ago, Mercer dashed forward, claws extended, and stabbed then disemboweled Heller as the precursor to consuming him.

Once Heller had been fully consumed Mercer closed his eyes and sat down with a sigh, the world around him shifting slightly as the Web transitioned control of the viral body over to Mercer. While this was happening Mercer was swiftly going about locking away Heller's consciousness in a similar manner to Greene's, only with more powerful restraints, say what he would about the man, Mercer had to admit the former soldier did have a truly remarkably powerful will, and Mercer wanted to make sure that there would never be any chance of Heller attempting a revolt similar to what had just occurred.

Now it was time to truly cement his control over the body by making his form the body's true form, and to do that he would need to go back out into the real world.

**Outside world – a few minutes after Heller was pulled into the Web of Intrigue**

The body which had been being controlled by James Heller roused itself slowly, standing up and doing various stretches as it shifted in a mass of red and black tendrils into its new true form: Alex Mercer. After taking on his true form Alex took a moment to look around before saying, "It's good to be back, and now to find out more about what has been happening while I've been away." With that said, Mercer quickly dashed out of the cover Heller had been using, shifting his body into its armored stated while shifting both of his hands into massive claws, and began to savagely dismember, disembowel, decapitated, and otherwise mutilate and consume every human within sight of the battlefield, regardless of sides.

Alex Mercer, the first Prototype, had returned to the world.

**A/N: Hello, whatever readers actually decide to take a look at this first work of mine! I hope you enjoyed this rather brief story, and if you didn't I could really care less. But regardless of your feelings about my story I would very much like to receive feedback on it; such as what you liked about it, what didn't like about it, any mistakes I may have made, or any thoughts that you may have had about the story, just so long as any criticisms are kept constructive, any flames will be discarded and disposed of as if they had actually burned me. **

**Now, before anyone comments or questions what I have done with my rendition of the Prototype universe, I would like to make some things clear: yes, I do realize that the entire premise of this story is ridiculously improbable, even by the standards of Prototype canon; but, I don't care. The device I used to tell this story seemed the most logical given what was possible in canon, and I needed an easy way to tell the story. This story came about because I rather disliked how Prototype 2 ended, I prefer Alex Mercer as a character over James Heller, and I was horribly disappointed that there wouldn't be a third game. Now, about my dislike for the way that Prototype 2 ended: at the end of the game Heller was admittedly quite powerful, BUT, he did seem to really be any more powerful than Mercer was at the end of the first game if you fully upgrade both of them; so, with that said, it seemed rather improbable to me that even if Mercer couldn't directly consume Heller because Heller's DNA was too resilient that Heller could defeat Mercer as easily as he seemed to in the final battle, I mean the game play of the fight may have been rather difficult, but the way in which Heller actually defeated Mercer seemed as if it was far too easy; that coupled with some of the things that Mercer says at the end of the game: to Dana before locking her in the bank vault with Amaya: "I am beyond Life and Death, and so is Heller, he just doesn't realize it yet." This implies that Alex may know that he is going to lose the upcoming fight with Heller and that when considered with what he, oddly calmly, tells Heller before being consumed: "Huh. Welcome to the top of the food chain." Seems to imply that he is not concerned in the least about what would appear to be his imminent death. I am also of the mind that a fair amount of the events of the first game were planned by Mercer before he was gunned down in Penn Station and then became the Blacklight virus; now I don't have nearly as much strong evidence to support this claim, but, here it is: Mercer had just spent the last several years becoming intimately familiar with the viral strain that became the Blacklight virus under his care and guidance, and so Mercer know that virus and what it did better than anyone, and he took it with him to Penn Station knowing that he would most likely be cornered and gunned down while there, and so fully intending to release the virus as he died; when he was cornered and gunned down, he was shot no less than six times, from the front, in the chest, and yet he fell forward, right onto the recently smashed vial of the Blacklight virus. And if my hunch that Mercer did indeed plan the events of the original Prototype game then that leads me to believe that he may very well have had at least truly foolproof contingence plan for Heller going rogue. **

**Well, now that that's out of the way; I would like to apologize now for the lack of description in this story, I am not the best at that and I am assuming that if you're reading this in the first place then you are at least familiar with Prototype and Prototype 2, and so you know what everyone looks.**

**Also, I would like to mention that I plan on writing and posting two different crossover stories for which this will serve as a sort of introduction, so if you liked this be on the lookout for those when I get around to posting them.**

**100million pennies, out.**


End file.
